A smattering of inspirational reading material for my ‘no so latest’ flight of fancy!
Fast forward to today and with the Lake Tanganyika project in full flow - serious painting starts today - I am now looking to revisit the earlier idea, albeit on a smaller scale.
Previously I had included the Goeben and Breslau, a brace of ‘I’ class Royal Navy battlecruisers, HMS Triumph and Swiftsure and a random selection of assorted obsolete cruisers etc. Looking at this from the perspective of building the models myself the project itself now will be at a lower level. There will be a degree of fudging in terms of the ships involved but being as this is designed firmly with Steamer Wars or similar in mind, that will be no bad thing. As it stands the largest ship that will appear will probably be the odd predreadnought battleship so no battlecruisers.
As it stands the list of models to build is surprisingly small but overall there will be more work involved in the construction of them. As far as possible I will use what bits and pieces I have from stock but there will certainly need to be some bespoke pieces ordered from Warbases, mainly hull pieces.
This will be naval war of older and extemporised warships, gunboats and second line types with the odd more modern vessel - mainly of the light cruiser variety.
As yet I have given no thought to the land side - either in Africa or Arabia - but in either theatre the rules of choice will probably be the Portable Colonial Wargame or maybe even When Empires Clash. The block armies will be used for this.
As far as naval rules are concerned I will need to think about this as Steamer Wars is fine for the gunboat level stuff but would rolling out light cruisers be a step too far? In any event I do not have to worry about that for now as the first batch of building will feature nothing larger than a gunboat or possibly an armed merchant cruiser (AMC). I will need to think about merchantmen though, primarily as targets methinks!
10 comments:
Well I can't offer any constructive suggestion re: the ships to use or not, but shall watch things unfold with interest: As for the land campaign, I would go for East Africa as you can have fun linking actions up with those on the Lakes, something that might be a tad hard to do going towards Arabia...
Nothing like the planning stages of a new project to get the juices flowing! Be interested to see where this goes that's for ure.
David -
Such meanderings and wanderings take one to all sorts of obscure realms aquatic and terrestrial. New worlds open.
On the light cruiser level stuff, I was just wondering - a thought occasioned by this posting - whether perhaps a known campaign of another era might be translated into something more modern.
In this connection, I was thinking of the Mauritius campaign of 1809 (the subject of the Patrick O'Brian novel featuring Capt. Jack Aubrey), translated into something nearer 1899 or 1909. Of course, the Ile de la Passe action could not be done with light cruisers, possibly, but with destroyers (something like the WW2 battles in Norwegian fords) or SGBs, monitors or flatiron gunboats - or even coastal battleships, maybe, could be a 'go'. The whole thing sounds to me like a good 'fit' for Madasahatta operations.
I'm interested in seeing where this goes!
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Steve J,
The connection between them all - East Africa and the Arabian peninsula is of course the sea. Add into the mix Madasahatta which sits handily for either part of the world you can begin to see where the thought processes are headed.
That is the plan anyway!
All the best,
DC
Hi Donnie,
I agree entirely - especially as I am now looking at it from a far more achievable perspective!
All the best,
DC
Hello there Archduke,
You have certainly given me something to think about - I am not familiar with many of Mr O'Brian's works so will look to rectify that shortly!
I must admit that I have a hankering to do something naval and low level in the Aegean during WW2 but that will be a project for another day.
All the best,
DC
I got all excited when I read your blog - the concept of Colonial gunboat diplomacy, during late Victorian or Edwardian, set in an Imagi-Nation i find appealing - Very keen to read further blogs on your thoughts, ruminations or progress
I'm trying to conceive a naval force based on S90 Class TB & E Class destroyer (river class in Australia HMAS Parramatta etc) interacting in Colonial disputes/conflicts & piracy (a bit like Zubia) - only have cut hull shapes
Hi Andrew,
Thank you kindly old chap! I blame Eric Knowles and Madasahatta for this particular flight of fancy but only in a good way as the whole thing has given me enormous pleasure over the years.
I like the idea of the S90 and E class - did you have a heater in mind? Mention of Zubia puts me in mind of Zanzibar - a veritable hotbed of nefarious shenanigans!
Best of luck with your efforts and be sure to let us know how it goes.
All the best,
DC
David -
Patrick O'Brian, 'The Mauritius Command', 1977 - a simplified account of the actual campaign, with some of the actual people replaced by fictitious characters (e.g. Capt Jack Aubrey for Josias Rowley; and Lord Clonfert for Capt. Willoughby). Corbet was a real captain, and apparently of the character portrayed.
Much of the campaign is mentioned in the memoirs of Lt Samuel Walters RN, who was serving there. Unfortunately he left the area for England (and a promise of promotion) shortly before the Battle of Ile de la Passe (Grand Port). His memoirs, published by Liverpool University Press 1949 (2005), were edited by C. Northcote Parkinson.
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Archduke,
Many thanks for expanding this for me - I am keen to read the series at some point and indeed, I promised myself I would do so when I retired!
I can see another project taking shape from this though....
All the best,
DC
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